Here’s the scenario… the table is 6 feet wide by 12 feet long, and from one of the shorter edges come four cogs, seeking to make their way to the other short edge where my own cog, a ship laden with treasure, lies moored. These other cogs want to take my treasure from me. Helping to defend the treasure ship are two huge klunky cogs, each chock full of around forty 15mm little people… archers and swordsmen and officers and the like. Bob and Cleo Liebl hosted the game, and there were some ten people tableside, each with his own cog. About twenty minutes into the game, I lost interest, but I hung on throughout the 3 hour game, curious to see how deep into the pit a set of rules could descend. Here’s part of the problem… I noted that there were two copies of the COG WARS (CG) rules on the table… i.e., two different versions. In Rules Set #1, for example, the weapon ranges (short, medium and long) of bows, cross bows, and cannon, along with their to-hit numbers, were different from those in Rules Set #2. One of the sets stated that the sequence should run: (a) Side A move ships and fire (b) Side B move ships and fire (c) Resolve boarding assaults for (a) and (b) But for some reason, we were using simultaneous movement and fire… each of us would plot our course, and then we’d all simultaneously move our ships. One set mandated that a cog could go 3 inches, turn 45 degrees, go another 3 inches, turn 45 degrees, etc. Thus, you’d get one 45 degree turn per 3 inches of movement. But I noted that some of the guys were marching (sailing?) to a different drummer. Their cog with, say, a 9 inch move, would zip along its full 9 inch distance, and then, having “saved” their two 45 degree turns, would then, at the end of the move, execute a complete 90 degree turn. Weapons fire used a 2-step procedure. (a) You tossed a 20-sided die for each man firing. High tosses were good… depending upon the weapon and range, anywhere from a 16 to a 20 was necessary to hit. (b) Then you tossed a 10-sided die and looked at another chart. Here, you were told how many of the hits struck an archer, how many struck an officer, how many struck a poor, unfortunate halbardier who happened to come up on deck to take a smoke. This gave an interesting random pattern to the hit procedure. Big klunky cogs had around 40 men on them, while little coggets had some 12 men, and the procedure eliminated the necessity of counting off the target figures to see who was hit. People Charts Perhaps I missed it, but what was interesting to me was that I didn’t see any charts for cannon fire producing a big hole in the target ship. All the charts seemed to be oriented against people. Eventually, the attacking cogs fought their way through the defending cogs and came directly at my treasure ship. As I indicated, I had been waiting some three hours to “do something”… now it was my turn to strike out! My treasure-trove cog had 12 men aboard… half were archers. Two enemy cogs approached, and within two turns… 2 volleys… my archers were wiped out. Bob Liebl commanded one of the enemy ships… he had around a dozen archers and another dozen swordsmen… these last were waiting for the order to board. I think my 6 archers took out one of his own missile-bearing men before they keeled over. I mentioned that the treasure ship was moored… it wasn’t allowed to move, and so, all my boys could do was to await the onslaught. Bob’s ship successfully grappled, the ships were now tied together, his boarding party poured onto my deck, and the fierce on-board slaughter began. Prior to the melee, I grabbed a black 20-sided die… the Die Of Death… preparing to use it in combat and smite the unfortunates who wanted to steal my treasure. And the umpire said to Bob… now take 3 of your guys in the boarding party, and line ‘em up, one on one, against 3 of Wally’s guys. And Bob did so. And the umpire said to Bob… now toss a 20-sided die for each pair-up, and if you toss a 1, 2, 3, or 4, you’ll have killed the opponent, i.e., Wally’s guy. If you don’t, your man will have been driven back aboard your ship. And Bob tossed his dice. He killed one of my boys and two of his were driven back. And the umpire said to Bob… you’ve got men left, now replace the men who were driven back with others on your side, and toss again. And Bob did so, and we did this a couple of times more, and the result was that one of my guys was left, while I had driven back most of the boarding party. Note that I still clutched an unused Die Of Death in my hand… I hadn’t tossed it. And I said to the umpire… when do I strike back? And he said “Wait!” Now it’s the next turn, and Bob’s remaining guys again pour aboard my ship. And we started the slaughter again, with Bob tossing dice, while I stood idly by, still clutching my so-far-unused Die Of Death. And then, suddenly, the umpire’s eyes opened wide and he said… “Wait! Wait! WAIT! THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG HERE!” Holy Moley! The SLEEPER awakens! Paul Muad’Dib has arrived! I, too, had been aware that there was something wrong for a long time (about three hours)… and it was about time the umpire realized it. He muttered that since we were using a simultaneous movement procedure, then, during the combat, I should have been permitted to strike back. Can you beat that? He actually proposed that I toss the Die Of Death! But having engaged in over a dozen rounds of combat, we decided not to prolong the agony, and it all ended there. And that, boys and girls, was my exposure to COG WARS. Please don’t invite me to participate in any other COG WARS games. Back to PW Review February 2002 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com